I  ukhshed  byJosepA  M.  Wilson.  PAiladejjJhla . 


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THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  349 

cessful  than  in  his  first  charge.  This  was  during  the  period  of  the  late  civil 
war.  Moved  by  the  spiritual  wants  of  the  soldiers  in  the  army  of  the 
South,  engaged  as  they  believed  in  defending  their  national  liberties,  he  left 
his  church  and  home  and  friends  for  a  time  to  labor  as  a  missionary  in  the 
field.  He  was  appointed  by  the  Executive  Committee  of  Domestic  Missions 
of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  South,  or  of 
the  then  called  C.  S.  A.,  to  labor  in  the  army  of  Tennessee  under  the  com- 
mand of  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston.    He  left  home  on  Jan.  27,  1864. 

He  gave  himself  to  the  work  with,  if  possible,  more  than  his  usual  zeal. 
He  labored  night  and  day  for  three  months  to  comfort  the  afflicted  and  to 
save  souls.  In  the  army,  God  gave  him  many  souls  for  his  hire.  He  said 
they  were  the  happiest  days  of  his  whole  life.  On  Sabbath,  the  15th  day  of 
May,  1864,  he  preached  to  Baker's  Brigade  in  the  Army  of  Tennessee  while 
inline  of  battle,  just  on  the  eve  of  the  most  fearful  battle  of  Besaca,  in 
Georgia,  and  preached  most  impressively  and  solemnly.  Very  soon  after, 
the  battle  began,  and  raged  with  great  fury.  Urged  by  a  patriotism  long 
cherished  in  his  quiet  home,  but  now  rendered  intense  by  the  magnitude  of 
the  pending  crisis  and  sublime  in  the  forgetfulness  of  self,  and  sustained^ 
a  courage  that  thought  not  of  danger,  he  rushed  into  the  battle,  cheering 
on  the  men  in  a  most  perilous  and  even  desperate  charge  upon  a  strong 
battery  of  the  enemy  ;  and  after  seeing  his  eldest  son  slain  before  his  face,  he 
fell,  himself  pierced  by  a  fatal  bullet.  Thus  ended  his  earthly  career.  The 
estimate  of  his  character  given  by  those  who  were  his  co-presbyters  and 
knew  him  best  is  as  follows.  (Extract  from  the  minutes  of  the  Presbytery  of 
Tuscaloosa : ) 

"He  was  a  man  of  excellent  mind  and  great  force  of  character.  Warmth, 
energy  and  generosity  were  his  leading  traits.  He  had  a  most  ardent  temp- 
erament. His  heart  was  ever  aglow  with  emotion.  He  was  emphatically 
a  man  of  intense  earnestness.  He  was  enthusiastic,  but  his  enthusiasm  was 
not  mere  passion — it  was  sanctified  fervor,  a  zeal  of  God  according  to  true 
Christian  knowledge,  and  hence  was  the  powerful  spring  to  a  holy  and  useful 
life — a  life  full  of  activity,  of  self-denial  and  benevolence.  His  ardent  soul 
glowed  with  the  love  of  Christ  and  the  love  of  souls.  He  was  a  most  devoted 
minister  of  the  blessed  gospel.  He  loved  to  preach  it.  He  loved  to  win 
souls.  He  threw  all  his  power  into  the  noble  work.  All  who  heard  him 
were  impressed  with  the  feeling  that  he  was  one  who  yearned  for  their  sal- 
vation, and  most  abundantly  did  God  bless  his  labors. 

He  built  up  the  Church,  not  only  in  his  own  pastoral  charge.,  but  in  all 
parts  of  this  Presbytery,  having  labored  more  or  less  in  almost  every  one  of 
our  churches,  and  in  very  many  instances  with  signal  tokens  of  God  upon 
his  efforts.  His  ministrations  were  prized  by  all  our  people,  and  their  loss 
is  as  extensively  lamented.  Our  whole  Presbytery,  both  ministers  and 
churches  feel  that  they  have  experienced  a  sad  calamity.  His  loss  to  us  as  a 
judicatory  is  certainly  very  great.  He  never  failed  to  attend  our  meetings; 
he  was  intimately  acquainted  with  all  our  affairs.  He  was  an  intelligent,  con- 
scientious, judicious  and  in  every  way  most  useful  presbyter." 

His  widow  and  four  children  survive — six  having  preceded  him  to  the 
spirit-world. 

PHILLIPS,  d.d.,  JAMES— Joseph  M.  Wilson:  Dear  Sir— In  com- 
plying with  your  request  that  I  should  furnish  the  Presbyterian  Historical 
Almajiac  with  a  biographical  sketch  of  my  father,  I  feel  assured  that  I  can- 
not further  your  object  better  than  by  sending  you  extracts  from  the  dis- 
course delivered  at  his  funeral  by  the  Bev.  A.  D.  Hepburn,  then  Professor 


350     THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


of  Metaphysics,  Logic  and  Rhetoric  in  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  from 
the  memorial  address  delivered  by  the  same  gentleman,  by  request  of  the 
trustees  of  the  university,  at  the  annual  Commencement  in  1867,  and  from 
various  obituary  notices  and  estimates  of  him  which  appeared  in  the  news- 
papers of  the  day — all  of  them  from  the  hands  of  men  well  qualified,  by  long 
and  intimate  association,  to  be  impartial  judges  of  his  character  and  his  work. 

I  am  particularly  pleased  that  my  father's  memory  should  be  thus  asso- 
ciated with  the  Historical  Almanac — a  work  in  which  he  took  a  great  interest 
from  its  beginning,  and  of  which  he  frequently  expressed  the  opinion  that 
it  was  one  of  growing  interest  and  of  inestimable  value  to  our  Church. 
I  am,  sir,  with  great  respect,  Cornelia  Phillips  Spencer. 

Chapel  Hill,  North  Carolina. 

Letter  from  Hon.  D.  L.  Swain,  ll.d.,  President  of  the  University  of 
North  Carolina,  to  the  North  Carolina  Presbyterian  (Fayette ville,  N.  C), 
March  27,  1867  :  My  Dear  Sir. — There  are  many  among  the  pupils  of  the 
late  Dr.  Phillips  to  be  found  in  every  Southern  and  Western  State,  who, 
like  yourself,  will  feel  a  deep  interest  in  his  personal  history.  I  know, 
therefore,  that  I  will  render  an  acceptable  service  to  a  considerable  propor- 
tion of  your  readers  by  sketching,  while  they  are  fresh  in  my  memory,  some 
of  the  leading  incidents  of  his  life. 

Dr.  Phillips  rarely  referred,  in  conversation,  to  himself,  and  few  beyond 
his  own  family  are  familiar  with  the  events  of  his  early  history.  He  was 
born  at  Nevendon,  Essex  county,  England,  on  the  22d  of  April,  1792,  and 
at  the  time  of  his  death,  March  14,  1867,  wanted  little  more  than  a  month 
of  completing  the  seventy-fifth  year  of  his  age.  He  was  the  third  son  of 
the  Rev.  Richard  and  Susan  Meade  Phillips.  His  father  was  a  minister  of 
the  Established  Church  of  England,  and  attached  to  the  Evangelical  party 
in  that  Church,  numbering  among  his  friends  such  men  as  Henry  Veuve  and 
John  Berridge.  He  removed,  when  James  was  seven  years  old,  to  Stafford- 
shire, and  from  thence,  about  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  to 
Roche,  Cornwall,  where  he  continued  rector  of  that  parish  until  his  death, 
about  1837. 

James  Phillips,  in  company  with  an  older  brother,  Samuel  A.  Phillips, 
Esq.,  now  a  resident  of  New  York  city,  came  to  America  in  the  year  1818, 
and  engaged  in  the  business  of  teaching,  at  Harlaem,  N.  Y. ,  where  he  soon 
had  a  flourishing  school.  In  1821  he  married  Julia  Vermeule,  daughter 
of  a  New  Jersey  farmer  of  good  family.  Her  brother,  Rev.  Cornelius  C.  Ver- 
meule, D.D.,  was  for  many  years  pastor  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church  in 
Harlaem.  In  1826  Dr.  Phillips  competed  successfully  for  the  chair  of 
Mathematics  and  Natural  Philosophy  in  the  University  of  North  Carolina, 
and  arrived  in  Chapel  Hill,  the  seat  of  the  university,  in  May,  1826.  Presi- 
dent Caldwell  was  then  in  the  fifty-fourth  year  of  his  age,  in  the  full  pos- 
session of  remarkable  physical  and  mental  energy.  Prof.  Phillips  was  in 
his  thirty-fourth  year.  Dr.  Mitchell,  the  Senior  Prof,  of  Chemistry,  and 
Dr.  Hooper,  Prof,  of  Rhetoric  and  Logic,  were  born  in  the  same  year  with 
Dr.  Phillips.  Prof.  Andrews,  subsequently  the  eminent  lexicographer,  was 
then  Prof,  of  Ancient,  and  Prof.  Hentz  (husband  of  the  celebrated  authoress, 
Mrs.  Caroline  Lee  Hentz)  was  Prof,  of  Modern  Languages.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
Hooper  is  now  the  only  survivor  of  that  band  of  eminent  men  who,  forty 
years  ago,  constituted  the  faculty  of  our  university. 

The  history  of  Dr.  Phillips'  forty  years'  work  will  best  be  given  in  con- 
nection with  a  general  history  of  our  university  and  State,  which  will,  wo 
hope,  ere  long  be  prepared  by  competent  hands.    Those  years  of  his  life 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  351 


were  years  of  close  study,  of  hard  work  and  of  singular  devotion  to  the 
duties  that  lay  before  him.  It  is  no  disparagement  to  any  of  his  colleagues 
in  the  Faculty  to  say  that,  in  unvarying  punctuality  and  fidelity  -in  every  re- 
lation, and  in  the  discharge  of  every  duty,  great  er  small,  none  could  com- 
pare with  him.  The  lives  of  few  teachers  in  this  or  any  other  country  can 
present  such  a  record.  _ 

Dr.  Phillips  was  an  inexorable  mathematician.  _  Had  he  ever  a  pupil  who 
will  not  bear  the  same  testimony,  with  the  addition  that  he  never  knew  a  . 
man  of  sterner  integrity  or  more  unflinching  courage?  not  merely  physical — 
for  this  is  no  uncommon  trait — but  moral  courage  ?  He  shrank  from  no  duty 
imposed  on  him  by  his  office,  either  as  professor  or  as  minister  in  the  Church 
of  God.  And,  while  he  never  swerved  a  hair's  breadth  from  the  undevi- 
ating  line  of  rectitude  which  he  marked  out  for  himself,  either  to  conciliate 
favor  or  to  deprecate  censure,  no  man  has  ever  secured  a  larger  share  of 
affectionate  veneration  in  the  hearts  of  all  who  knew  him.  He  was  em- 
phatically a  gentleman  of  the  old  school  in  manners,  in  religious  belief,  and 
in  most  of  his  forms  of  thought.  While  he  rejected  no  new  theories  simply 
because  they  were  new,  he  embraced  none  without  careful  examination  and 
thorough  conviction  of  their  worth.  His  favorite  religious  reading  lay 
among  the  old  non-conformist  divines ;  his  favorite  authors  were  the  old 
English  classics ;  the  book  that  was  oftenest  in  his  hand  was  the  oldest  of 
all— the  Bible.  Without  entering  further  into  the  delineation  of  his  cha- 
racter, which  will  receive  a  more  elaborate  survey  than  I  have  at  present 
time  or  disposition  to  make,  I  may  mention  that,  among  numerous  testimo- 
nials to  the  value  and  efficiency  of  his  method  of  instruction  in  his  own  de- 
partment of  science,  was  a  letter  from  Lieutenant  Maury,  while  at  the  head 
of  the  national  observatory.  He  had  had  successively  two  of  Dr.  Phillips' 
pupils*  as  assistants,  and  he  applied  to  secure  a  third  as  instructor  for  his 
own  children,  stating  that  he  desired  them  to  have  the  benefit  of  the  same 
training  which  had  rendered  his  assistants  such  ready  and  accurate  mathe- 
maticians. 

How  often  has  Dr.  Phillips  in  early  life  responded  to  his  own  father  in  his 
church,  in  the  beautiful  and  expressive  language  of  the  English  Litany, 
"From  battle  and  murder,  and  from  sudden  death,  good  Lord  deliver  us!" 
I  have  sometimes  thought  that  the  last  of  these  events  was,  under  some 
circumstances,  rather  to  be  coveted  than  dreaded.  "The  chamber  where 
the  good  man  meets  his  fate  is  privileged  beyond  the  common  walks  of  vir- 
tuous life — just  on  the  verge  of  heaven."  This  was  Dr.  Caldwell's  case. 
He  died  the  victim  of  excruciating  and  lingering  disease,  with  his  wife  and 
friends  to  witness  the  calmness  and  composure,  the  faith  and  triumph  of  his 
closing  hour.  His  senior  professor,  Dr.  Mitchell,  perished  instantaneously  in 
one  of  the  wildest  and  most  inaccessible  gorges  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  re- 
poses on  the  loftiest  summit  of  the  continent,  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
Who  that  knew  him  personally  would  have  desired  a  different  termination 
of  his  active  existence?  Not  less  startling  and  remarkable  was  the  departure 
of  his  venerated  friend  and  colleague,  Dr.  Phillips.  On  the  tempestuous 
morning  of  the  14th,  a  little  before  nine  o'clock,  with  his  accustomed,  al- 
most constitutional  punctuality,  in  despite  of  the  entreaties  of  his  youngest 
child,  he  set  out  in  the  rain  to  officiate  at  morning  prayers.  He  arrived  at 
the  chapel  as  usual,  in  advance  of  the  ringing  of  the  bell,  and  took  his  ac- 
customed seat  immediately  behind  the  reading-desk.  What  were  his  thoughts 
or  feelings  during  that  walk,  and  as  he  sat  there  a  few  moments  alone,  can 


*  General  Pettigrew  and  Captain  A.  W.  Lawrence. 


352     THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


be  known  only  to  his  God.  The  first  student  who  entered  the  chapel  after 
the  bell  commenced  ringing  bowed  to  him  and  spoke.  The  salutation  not 
being  returned,  he  advanced  toward  him,  and  perceived  him  in  the  act  of 
falling  from  his  seat.  He  dropped  to  the  floor  in  the  precise  spot  wherev 
for  so  many  years,  he  had  so  often  and  so  fervently  prayed  for  the  rising 
generation  that  surrounded  him.  Dr.  Mallet  was  almost  immediately  there, 
but  in  ten  minutes  he  had  ceased  to  breathe.  Surrounded  by  the  whole 
body  of  students,  in  the  arms  of  one  of  them,  he  went  to  his  eternal  rest 
without  a  pang  or  a  struggle,  and  in  sad  and  solemn  procession  was  born  by 
them  and  his  coliegues  in  the  Faculty  to  his  residence  and  laid  down  in  his 
library  among  his  books;  his  manuscript  sermon  in  preparation  for  next 
Sabbath  lying  open  on  his  table,  just  as  he  had  left  it.  There  the  veteran 
who  had  dropped  at  his  post  lay  with  the  peace  of  God  upon  his  noble  brow, 
having  heard  the  summons,  "Come  up  higher,"  and  received  the  word, 
"Well  done."    He  walked  with  God  and  was  not,  for  God  took  him. 

Had  Dr.  Phillips  been  permitted  to  choose  the  time,  place  and  manner  of 
his  departure,  I  do  not  doubt  he  would  have  chosen  thus.  His  most  frequent 
petition  in  family  prayer  of  late  had  been,  "Let  me  be  useful  as  long  as  I  live, 
and  let  me  die  in  thy  service."  He  had  a  dread  of  an  old  age  lengthened 
out  in  weakness  and  infirmity.  And  his  Master  gave  his  old  servant  what 
he  desired.  At  his  post,  with  his  harness  on,  with  his  recitation-room  key 
and  "Pierce's  Plane  and  Solid  Geometry"  in  his  hand,  prepared  to  begin 
his  day's  work  with  prayer,  the  last  sound  in  his  ears  the  familiar  tones  of 
the  college  bell,  the  last  sight  the  students  assembling  for  worship,  he  passed 
away.    A  better,  braver,  nobler  man  I  have  never  known. 

He  preached  his  last  sermon  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  on  Sunday,  the 
10th,  from  the  text  Amos  v.  6,  and  heard  the  recitations  of  the  Junior, 
Sophomore  and  Freshman  classes  on  the  two  succeeding  days.  The  evening 
before  his  death  I  walked  home  with  him  from  the  chapel  after  prayers,  and 
saw  him  stop  to  pluck  a  flower  from  the  campus  shrubbery  to  carry  his  little 
granddaughter. 

On  Saturday  morning,  March  16,  his  remains  were  carried  to  the  college 
chapel,  which  was  draped  in  black,  and  after  a  short  and  singularly  appro- 
priate address,  by  Professor  Hepburn,  he  was  laid  in  the  graveyard  near  his 
grandchildren  who  had  preceded  him  to  heaven.  A  suitable  memoir  will 
be  prepared  and  published  by  the  students,  whose  affectionate  veneration  for 
his  memory  resembles  that  of  sons  for  a  father,  and  who  desire  to  see  that 
nothing  shall  be  omitted  which  can  do  honor  to  his  memory. 

Dr.  Phillips  leaves  a  widow,  at  present  in  precarious  health  and  on  a  visit 
to  relatives  in  New  York,  and  three  children.  The  eldest  is  the  Rev. 
Charles  Phillips,  Professor  of  Pure  Mathematics  in  the  university ;  the  second 
Honorable  Samuel  F.  Phillips,  late  speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and 

S resent  reporter  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  North  Carolina;  and  the  youngest, 
[rs.  Cornelia  Spencer,  well  known  as  the  author  of  "  The  Last  Ninety  Days 
of  the  War  in  N.  C."  He  was  eminently  happy  in  his  children,  and  his  old 
age  was  made  sunny  by  their  tender  love  and  devotion  to  him.  A  long  and 
honored  and  useful  life,  a  serene  evening  and  an  enviable  close.  The  right- 
eous shall  bring  forth  fruit  in  old  age,  and  the  seed  of  thy  servants  shall  be 
established  for  ever.  D.  L.  S. 

Chapel  Hill,  March  18,  1867. 

Letter  from  the  Rev.  Drury  Lucy,  d.d.,  of  Raleigh,  N.  C,  in  the  "  Cen- 
tral Presbyterian' '  (Richmond,  Va. ).  Dear  Sir:  It  is  not  to  create  a  character, 
but  to  portray  one,  that  I  enter  upon  the  melancholy,  yet  pleasing  duty  of 


THE   PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  353 


paying  a  just  tribute  to  to  the  memory  of  a  great  and  good  man — my  dear 
friend,  Rev.  James  Phillips,  D.D. 

Some  men  are  great  by  the  position  in  which  Providence  hasplaced  them  ; 
some  again  are  distinguished  by  the  gifts  of  fortune,  and  acquired  fame  and 
distinction  bAie  noble  use  of  the  means  which  God  has  committed  to  their 
stewardship.  Others,  like  my  departed  friend,  are  endowed  with  those  re- 
markable intellectual  and  moral  qualities  which,  in  their  combination,  al- 
ways compel  the  attention  of  men ;  exerting  an  influence,  and  commanding 
a  respect  which  is  not  limited  by  position  and  is  not  dependent  upon  the 
gifts  of  fortune.  This  kind  of  greatness  belongs  to  the  man  and  not  to  his 
place ;  it  is  individual  and  not  official ;  it  is  inherent  and  not  reflected  from 
place  or  circumstance.  It  is  a  greatness  which  is  not  exaggerated  by  dis- 
tance, but  is  felt  the  more  as  we  approach  the  nearer — which  marks  the  pos- 
sessor as  belonging  to  the  true  aristocracy  of  great  men— as  one  of  those  in- 
tellectual princes  whose  letters  patent  of  nobility  are  from  God  himself.  It 
is  of  such  a  man  I  wish  to  speak  in  a  few  words  of  tender  remembrance. 

Dr.  Phillips  was  a  man  of  unusual  robustness  of  health,  and  rarely  suf- 
fered from  attacks  of  disease.  His  vigorous  constitution,  however,  sustained 
a  shock  from  a  severe  attack  of  pneumonia  several  years  ago,  from  which 
he  never  entirely  recovered;  and  he  himself  realized  that  he  never  fully 
regained  his  strength  and  elasticity,  and  lived  daily  as  one  waiting  for  the 
coming  of  the  Lord.  In  the  discharge  of  his  regular  duties,  he  had  gone 
to  the  chapel — though  the  morning  was  inclement — to  lead  the  devotions  of 
the  Sabbath.  Just  before  he  arose  to  pray,  his  spirit  was  summoned  to  the 
presence  of  his  Judge.  While  sitting  on  the  rostrum  he  suddenly  fell  dead 
from  an  attack  of  apoplexy,  and  was  tenderly  and  reverently  born  by  the 
hands  of  his  sorrowing  pupils  to  his  own  dwelling.  Thus  fell  at  his  post  of 
duty  this  great  man  ;  thus  suddenly  was  he  summoned  from  earth  to  heaven 
to  mingle  his  grand  soul  with  its  kindred  elements  in  eternity. 

Let  us  now  look  at  some  of  those  characteristics  by  which  he  was  marked. 

In  the  first  place,  he  had  a  wonderful  facility  in  acquiring  knowledge. 
Considering  the  amount  and  variety  of  his  professional  labors,  we  must  ad- 
mit that  his  literary,  theological  and  professional  attainments  were  very  re- 
markable. Indeed,  there  was  scarcely  any  object  of  human  research  with 
whose  history  and  progress  he  was  not  acquainted. 

He  was  equally  distinguished  for  his  resolution  and  self-reliance.  His 
strong  will  gained  additional  force  from  other  traits  of  character  by  which 
he  was  marked.  Whatever  had  to  be  done,  with  him  could  be  done  and 
was  done.  The  resources  of  his  mind  suggested  the  means,  and  his  resolu- 
tion impelled  to  the  result.  Hence  it  was  that  from  his  very  boyhood, 
through  the  whole  course  of  his  life,  he  was  so  eminently  a  self-made  man. 

No  man  ever  carried  out  more  fully  and  practically  the  old  saying  about 
"diligence,  industry  and  the  proper  improvement  of  time."  The  amount 
of  his  reading — apart  from  his  professional  studies — was  astonishing.  One 
had  to  be  with  him  a  long  time,  and  to  know  him  well,  to  find  out  much  he 
did  read.  In  the  last  volume  of  Henry's  Commentary  this  entry  occurs : 
"I  finished  reading  this  entire  commentary  December  25,  1852,  at  three- 
quarters  past  eight  o'clock,  A.  M."  And  so  in  JNeander's  Church  History, 
Augustine  de  Civ.,  Ambrose,  Tholuck,  Haldane,  Alexander  and  numberless 
others  one  will  find:  "Hoc  volumen  perlegi,"  with  the  date,  or  simply 
uperlegiy  and  date.  All  who  have  heard  him  preach,  and  all  who  have  en- 
joyed his  conversation,  know  how  he  profited  by  his  abundant  readings. 

The  only  fault  I  ever  heard  any  one — even  the  most  fastidious — make  of 
his  preaching  was,  that  his  sermon  was  too  full  of  matter.    It  was  a  fault. 

45 


354     THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


A  great  thinker  himself,  he  took  it  for  granted  that  his  hearers  could  think 
too,  and  did  not  make  allowance  for  the  fact  that  not  one  in  a  thousand 
could  follow  his  train  of  thought,  compactly  logical  all  through,  as  easily  as 
he  could  originate  it.  '  'He  appeared  to  the  greatest  advantage  upon  sub- 
jects where  the  faculties  of  most  men  fail  them ;  for  the  nat^l  element  of 
his  mind  was  greatness."  As  he  excelled  at  the  same  time  in  taking  a  pro- 
found and  comprehensive  view  of  a  subject,  so  the  understanding  and  affec- 
tions of  his  hearers  were  equally  interested  in  his  sermons,  which  usually 
flowed  on  in  a  mighty  torrent  of  argument  and  pathos.  There  was  a  certain 
massiveness  in  the  matter  of  his  discourses,  which,  like  that  of  his  bodily 
frame,  could  not  but  be  felt  by  those  who  came  in  contact  with  him.  Of  all 
things  he  did  love  to  preach  the  gospel  of  the  free^  and  glorious  grace  of 
God.  No  one  who  has  had  the  good  fortune  to  hear  him  in  his  prime  can  ever 
forget  the  grand  exhibitions  of  truth  he  held  up  from  such  texts  as  Rom.  v. 
1;  Rom.  viii.  32;  Grab  ii.  20;  Gal.  iv.  4,  5;  Gal.  vi.  14;  Titus  iii.  4,  7; 
etc.,  etc.    He  used  to  say  he  loved  fat  texts. 

While  we  are  on  the  subject  of  his  ministry  it  would  be  great  injustice  to 
the  memory  of  my  friend  not  to  mention  his  striking  superiority  in  the  dis- 
charge of  the  devotional  part  of  his  pulpit  exercises,  his  almost  unrivalled 
eminence  in  prayer.  I  never  heard  a  man  pray  so  in  my  life.  His  prayers 
united  every  excellence  of  which  they  are  susceptible :  they  were  copious, 
fervent,  elevated  and  unutterably  solemn.  He  poured  out  his  whole  soul 
in  an  easy,  unaffected  flow  of  devotional  sentiment.  Adoration  seemed  to 
be  his  natural  element ;  and  as  he  appeared  to  lose  consciousness  of  any  other 
presence  but  that  of  the  deity,  he  seldom  failed  to  raise  the  worshipers  to 
the  same  elevation,  and  to  make  them  realize  the  feelings  of  Jacob,  when  he 
exclaimed  :  "  How  dreadful  is  this  place  !" 

But  it  was  not  in  the  pulpit  only  that  Dr.  Phillips  shone  ;  in  his  private 
sphere  of  action  as  a  Christian  his  virtues  were  not  less  distinguished  than 
his  duties  as  a  minister.  He  was  a  man  of  ardent  piety,  though  he  was  not 
forward  to  speak  of  his  religious  exercises.  Deep  devotion  and  unaffected 
humility  entered  far  into  this  part  of  his  character.  If  he  was  admirable  in 
public  prayer,  he  was  not  less  so  in  family  devotion.  Many  a  time,  in  former 
years,  when  on  a  visit  to  my  house — and  elsewhere  also — have  I  been  sur- 
prised at  the  promptitude,  ease  and  grace  with  which  he  would  bring  in  the 
peculiar  circumstances  of  the  family,  with  an  allusion  sometimes  to  minute 
incidents,  without  once  impairing  the  solemnity  or  detracting  from  the  dig- 
nity which  ought  ever  to  accompany  a  religious  exercise.  His  petitions  in 
behalf  of  any  individual  were  stamped  with  something  exclusively  proper  to 
his  situation  or  character,  so  that  while  he  was  joining  in  an  act  of  social 
worship  he  felt,  before  he  was  aware,  as  if  he  were  left  alone  with  God. 

Dr.  Phillips  was  a  decided  Calvinist  in  sentiment,  and  a  thorough  Pres- 
byterian in  his  views  of  doctrine  and  order.  If  this  was  not  so  manifest  in 
his  ecclesiastical  connections,  it  was  because  he  was  deprived  of  the  opportu- 
nity of  frequent  attendance  on  the  meetings  of  Presbytery  by  the  position  he 
occupied  as  a  professor  in  the  university.  While  living  in  New  York  he 
left  the  Episcopal  Church,  although  he  had  been  born  and  educated  within 
its  bosom  in  Old  England,  because  he  could  not  endure  the  High-Churchism 
which  he  witnessed  there,  presenting  as  it  did  so  strong  a  contrast  to  the 
simplicity  and  spirituality  of  worship  exhibited  in  his  father's  congregation. 

He  was  a  genial  companion  (no  one  could  be  more  so),  and  in  his  hours 
of  relaxation,  mingled  with  his  chosen  friends  in  conversation  with  a  hearti- 
ness that  was  delightful.  He  was  a  firm  and  fast  friend,  as  well  in  evil  as  in 
good  report,  in  adversity  as  well  as  in  prosperity.    He  loved  to  play  with 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  855 


children,  and  they  loved  him  dearly  in  turn.  Many  a  pleasant  frolic  and 
noisy  romp  with  him  will  be  remembered  by  them  with  tearful  eyes  and 
swelling  hearts  as  long  as  they  live. 

He  was  a  remarkably  modest  man,  as  free^  from  arrogance  and  presump- 
tion, as  humble  in  the  estimate  of  his  own  importance,  as  one  can  be  well 
conceived  to  be  in  this  world  of  sin.  And  yet  he  was  as  brave  a  man  as 
ever  lived,  abounding  in  courage  both  of  body  and  soul.  The  only  being  in 
all  the  universe  he  feared  was  God,  and  him  he  feared  all  the  day  long. 

I  feel  incompetent  to  speak  of  him  as  a  professor  in  the  university.  But- 
from  the  little  I  know  myself,  and  from  all  I  have  ever  learned  through 
others,  he  was  a  very  accomplished  professor.  And  from  information  gath- 
ered from  those  who  ought  to  know,  I  doubt,  whether  among  the  records 
of  the  many  great  and  good  men  who  have  been  engaged  in  the  same  hon- 
orable employment  another  can  be  found  who  united  in  his  own  person  a 
more  remarkable  assemblage  of  those  qualities  which  fit  a  man  for  discharg- 
ing his  high  trust  as  a  professor — whether  another  can  be  found  who  has 
united  in  a  higher  degree,  the  dignity  that  commands  jrespect,  the  accuracy 
that  inspires  confidence,  the  ardor  that  kindles  animation,  the  kindness  that 
wins  affection — and  has  been  able,  at  the  same  time,  to  exhibit  before  his 
classes  the  fruits  of  long  and  profound  research,  and  of  great  experience  in 
the  business  of  instruction. 

He  had  his  failings  no  doubt — for  who  is  free? — but  they  were  scarcely 
ever  suffered  to  influence  his  conduct,  or  to  throw  even  a  transient  shade 
over  the  splendor  of  his  character.  On  the  whole,  if  a  massive  intellect, 
unaffected  simplicity  of  manners,  staunch  integrity  of  heart,  unswerving 
fidelity  in  friendship,  the  gentleness  of  the  lamb,  and  the  boldness  of  the 
lion — and  all  these  qualities  consecrated  by  a  piety  the  most  ardent  and 
sincere  on  the  high  altar  of  devotion — have  any  claim  to  respect,  the  memory 
of  Dr.  Phillips  will  long  be  cherished  with  tears  of  admiration  and  sorrow  by 
those  who  knew  him.  D.  L. 

Letter  from  the  Rev.  W.  Hooper,  d.d.,  of  Wilson,  N.  C,  to  the  North 
Carolinian  (Wilson,  N.  C),  March  23,  1867: 

The  departure  of  such  a  man  from  amongst  us  deserves  more  than  a 
common  obituary  notice.  He  had  lived  nearly  seventy-five  years,  forty  of 
which  he  had  spent  at  our  university,  as  professor  of  mathematics ;  and 
thus  has  he  had  a  share  in  the  education  of  a  large  part  of  the  present 
generation  in  our  own  and  the  adjoining  States.  To  the  ability  and  strict 
and  conscientious  fidelity  with  which  he  discharged  his  professional  duties 
during  that  long  official  term  his  numerous  pupils  will  universally  testify. 
Dr.  Phillips  was  also  a  learned  divine,  and  a  preacher,  zealous,  ardent  and 
unusually  affectionate  and  melting ; 

— "  the  tear 
That  fell  upon  his  Bible  was  sincere." 

Often  has  the  writer  seen  him  in  his  pulpit  ministration  mingling  his  tears 
with  his  impassioned  exhortations,  as  then  he  would  pour  out  his  soul  in  his 
earnest  desires  for  the  conversion  of  his  hearers.  Great  is  the  responsibility 
under  which  those  lie  who  had  the  privilege  of  hearing  his  sermons  and  his 
prayers,  for  these  last,^  too,  were  in  an  uncommon  degree  fervent,  rich  and 
scriptural.  His  peculiar  gift  in  prayer  was  acknowledged  and  enjoyed  by  all 
congenial  souls.  But  the  good  man,  after  having  served  God  and  his  gen- 
eration— having  fought  the  good  fight — has  finished  his  course  on  earth  and 
gone  to  receive  the  crown  of  righteousness.    His  summons  was  sudden,  but 


856     THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


he  lived  in  habitual  preparation,  and  it  was  remarked  that  his  prayers  of 
late  had  generally  contained  petitions  for  a  readiness  to  meet  sudden  death. 
His  family  also  remarked  an  increased  tenderness  and  affection  in  his  man- 
ner, as  presaging  a  short  stay  with  them. 

In  taking  a  survey  of  a  long  life  thus  spent  in  honorable  toil  for  God  and 
man,  favored  with  ability  to  be  useful  to  the  last  moment,  such  a  man  we 
may  with  justice  pronounce,  "  blessed  in  life  and  in  death."  _  In  the  case 
before  us,  besides  his  contribution  to  the  general  stock  of  enlightened  men 
throughout  the  State,  few  men  have  had  more  reason  to  felicitate  themselves 
on  the  successful  results  of  education  in  their  own  families.  He  has  lived 
to  see  one  of  his  sons  attain  to  high  character  as  a  professor  and  theologian, 
another  to  take  a  leading  rank  among  the  legislators  of  the  State,  and  a 
daughter  to  earn  a  distinguished  reputation  as  a  writer,  by  a  historical  sketch 
of  the  concluding  scenes  of  our  late  unfortunate  struggle,  characterized  by 
a  richness  of  material,  a  clearness  of  detail  and  an  elegance  and  vigor  of 
style  which  promise  to  make  it  a  part  of  the  permanent  literature  of  the 
State.  And  these  are  all.  No  Ishmael  to  mar  the  pleasure  derived  from 
Isaac!  No  Absalom  to  wring  the  heart  that  was  comforted  in  Solomon! 
To  none  could  with  more  propriety  be  applied  the  words  of  the  Mantuan  bard  : 
Fortunate  senex!  terque  quaterque  beate.  The  writer  of  these  lines  finds  a 
melancholy  satisfaction  in  paying  this  last  tribute  to  the  memory  of  one  of 
his  oldest  and  most  valued  friends  and  fellow-laborers  in  the  cathedra  of  the 
professor  and  in  the  sacred  desk.  W.  H. 

Wilson,  N.  C,  March  22,  1867. 

Extract  of  a  letter  from  the  Rev.  Ephraim  Harding,  of  Concord,  N.  C, 
to  The  Christian  Observer,  Richmond,  Va.,  March  28,  1867: 

While  I  write  these  words,  I  think  of  one  dear  old  man,  my  friend  and 
my  father's  friend,  who  has  just  gone  to  the  "land  that  is  very  far  off"  and 
is  now  seeing  "  the  King  in  his  beauty." 

He  had  just  this  power  I  have  been  speaking  of.  His  sermons  were  mines 
of  the  purest  gold — the  most  precious  truth.  I  cannot  tell  you  how  blessed 
I  would  feel  if  I  could  heap  up  the  rich  ore  of  the  gospel. 

I  allude  to  the  late  Professor  James  Phillips,  D.D.,  of  the  University  of 
North  Carolina. 

He  was  the  son  of  the  Rev.  Richard  Phillips  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  was  born  in  the  parish  of  Neweudon,  twenty  miles  from  London,  April 
22,  1792.  He  saw  Napoleon  the  First,  on  board  the  Bellerophon,  at  Ply- 
mouth, just  before  he  sailed  to  St.  Helena.  Pie  came  to  America  in  1818, 
to  Chapel  Hill  in  1826,  and  was  licensed  by  the  Presbytery  of  Orange,  at 
New  Hope,  in  September,  1833. 

For  forty  years  he  devoted  himself  with  unremitting  care  and  attention  to 
his  duties  as  professor  of  mathematics,  never  having  failed  during  all  that 
time,  perhaps,  more  than  half  a  dozen  times,  to  be  at  prayers  and  recita- 
tion at  the  appointed  time. 

He  was  a  regular  and  beloved  visitor  at  my  father's  house,  and  I  have 
kept  up  an  unbroken  friendship  for  him  from  childhood.  Sterling  good 
sense,  a  strong  intellect  was  the  basis  of  his  character,  but  it  was  colored 
with  a  humor,  a  quaintness,  a  pathos,  a  tenderness,  and  at  the  same  time  a 
kindly  good-natured  curtness,  that  altogether  gave  a  peculiar,  charming 
piquancy  to  his  character. 

He  was,  I  think,  a  great  preacher ;  his  sermons  were  complete  structures. 
There  was  nothing  oratorical  about  him;  it  was  the  pure  "weight  of  metal." 
It  was,  as  regards  the  thoughts,  iron  logic,  "  Totus,  teres,  atque  rotundus," 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  357 


not  a  nail  wanting,  not  a  bolt  loose,  not  a  tap  off.  But  yet  there  played 
all  over  it  in  beautiful  hues  the  softest,  richest,  most  tremulous  pathos. 
Years  ago  I  heard  him  preach  on  "Though  he  was  rich,  yet  for  our  sakes 
he  became  poor. "  After  he  got  fully  into  the  subject  the  pathos  became 
richer  and  richer,  deeper  and  deeper,  until  it  reached  its  climax  in,  "  Then 
the  broken-hearted  Jesus  bowed  his  head  and  died."  I  just  leaned  my 
head  over  on  the  pew  and  gave  loose  to  my  emotions.  Pascal's  broken 
phrases — joy,  joy — tears,  tears — alone  describe  such  moments.  As  I  left  the 
church,  a  lawyer  of  high  culture  and  great  reading  remarked  to  me, 
"  Pure  gold!  pure  gold!" 

He  was  peculiarly  gifted  in  prayer ;  he  was  often  very  long,  but  then  he 
took  you  to  the  throne.  A  pious  man  remarked  that  one  of  his  prayers 
was  worth  a  ride  of  thirty  miles.  I  remember  the  depth  of  emotion  he 
used  to  crowd  into,  "  In  whom,  though,  we  see  him  not,  yet  now  believing,  we 
rejoice  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory."  It  was  said  of  him  that  the 
simple  utterance,  "  Our  Father  in  Heaven,"  was  worth  the* whole  prayer  of 
other  men. 

He  was  a  thorough  mathematician,  but  well  and  thoroughly  read  in  all 
departments.  Many  books  in  his  library  have  this  simple  comment,  "  JPer- 
legi."  "I  could  not  get  him,"  says  one  of  his  sons  in  a  letter  to  me,  "to 
read  'Ecce  Homo,'  or  to  become  interested  in  the  modern  Christological  con- 
troversy, but  in  Ambrose's  '  Looking  to  Jesus,'  I  find  '  hoc  volmnen  prelegV 
As  to  Young  and  Bushnell  he  used  to  say,  '  At  my  time  of  life,  I  can't  be 
taking  up  my  foundation  just  to  relay  it  again,  for  none  other  can  be  laid 
than  is  already  laid.'  " 

The  same  letter  says,  "Since  I  have  been  sick,  my  father  had  been  at- 
tending to  my  work  in  college,  thereby  nearly  quadrupling  his  labors;  this 
he  would  do,  notwithstanding  my  remonstrances  and  those  of  his  colleagues. 
There  is  something  almost  sublime  in  the  manner  of  my  father's  death — in 
this  old  man  of  threescore  and  fifteen  going  on  like  one  of  Gideon's  men 
'faint,  yet  pursuing;'  in  his  falling  dead  on  the  rostrum  where  he  had  led 
the  devotions  of  his  students  for  forty  years  ;  with  those  pupils  gathering  to 
prayer  as  the  last  sight  of  his  eyes  ;  and  the  bell  calling  them  to  prayer  as  the 
last  sound  in  his  ears ;  and  a  preparation  for  prayer  as  the  last  act  of  his 
heart." 

He  was  a  self-made  man,  although  reading  Latin,  Greek,  French,  Italian ; 
and  even  when  he  came  to  Chapel  Hill,  the  associate  of  the  first  men  in  his 
profession  at  the  North,  it  was  all  acquired  by  himself.  I  love  to  contem- 
plate the  memory  of  such  men.  Oh  what  a  precious  harvest  is  gathering 
in  heaven !  E. 

On  the  announcement  of  Dr.  Phillips'  death  the  usual  resolutions  of  re- 
spect and  condolence  were  passed  by  Orange  Presbytery  and  the  Synod  of 
North  Carolina^  by  the  town  commissioners  of  Chapel  Hill,  by  the  Session 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Chapel  Hill,  by  the  students  of  the  university, 
by  the  Dialectic  Society  of  the  university — of  which  he  was  a  member — and 
by  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Trustees  of  the  university.  The  latter 
body,  in  consideration  of  the  long  and  eminent  services  of  the  deceased  pro- 
fessor, and  as  evidence  of  their  appreciation  of  his  worth, 

Resolved,  "That  the  Rev.  Professor  Hepburn  be  requested  to  deliver  a 
funeral  oration  before  the  trustees,  Faculty  and  students  of  the  university  in 
Girard  Hall  at  the  next  annual  commencement,  and  that  the  public  be  re- 
spectfully requested  to  unite  with  them  in  the  bestowment  of  appropriate 
funeral  honors." 


358    THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


On  the  5th  of  June,  1867,  in  the  presence  of  a  large  and  unusually  bril- 
liant assemblage,  the  President  of  the  United  States,  with  Mr.  Seward  and 
other  members  of  his  cabinet  and  staff  being  present,  Mr.  Hepburn  delivered 
an  elaborate  and  elegant  discourse,  from  which  our  space  compels  us  to 
omit  such  passages  as  would  be  repetitions  of  the  preceding  notices,  and  to 
condense  much  of  the  whole.  We  have  endeavored  not  to  mar  its  beauty 
and  symmetry. 

MEMORIAL  ADDRESS. 

The  Faculty  of  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  conformably  to  a  reso- 
lution of  the  executive  committee,  has  set  apart  this  evening  to  commem- 
orate the  life  and  character  of  James  Phillips,  D.D.,  for  more  than  forty 
years  Professor  of  Mathematics  and  Natural  Philosophy  in  the  institution, 
who  died  suddenly  in  the  course  of  the  present  session  while  in  the  dis- 
charge of  one  of  his  college  duties.  In  compliance  with  the  request  of  the 
same  committee,  I  appear  to  pay  a  tribute  of  friendship  to  his  memory. 
In  discharging  this  duty  I  shall  indulge  in  no  eulogy.  #  Dr.  Phillips  was  a 
true  man,  and  the  highest  honor  that  we  can  pay  him  is  to  portray  him  as 
he  was.  He  himself  on  one  occasion  declared  that  a  man's  life  should  be 
his  only  eulogy,  and  in  accordance  with  his  own  feelings  on  such  subjects  I 
shall  aim  to  give  you  a  simple  narrative  of  his  uneventful  life  and  an  im- 
partial estimate  of  his  merits  as  a  scholar,  professor,  theologian,  and  of  his 
character  as  a  man. 

The  few  years  immediately  preceding  Dr.  Phillips'  emigration  to  this  country 
were  spent  by  him  at  Plymouth,  where  his  older  brother  Samuel,  returning 
home  after  a  ten-years'  absence  on  duty  in  the  English  navy,  found  him  en- 
gaged in  private  study  and  in  teaching.  It  was  that  period  of  his  life  which 
is  most  important  in  the  formation  of  character.  His  tastes  and  habits  seem 
to  have  been  fixed  early,  and  to  the  impressions  which  he  here  received  and 
the  scenes  he  witnessed  a.t  this  great  military  and  naval  station  we  can  trace 
many  of  his  later  habits  and  interests.  That  he  saw  Napoleon  when  a 
prisoner  on  board  the  Bellerophon  as  she  lay  in  Plymouth  harbor  is  one  of 
the  few  incidents  of  his  early  life  that  he  ever  referred  to  ;  but  it  appeared 
incidentally  from  his  conversation  that  from  his  intimacy  with  some  of  the 
officers  with  whom  the  port  of  Plymouth  was  at  that  time  crowded,  he  made 
considerable  proficiency  in  military  science  and  acquired  a  fondness  for  it 
which  he  retained  through  life  :  only  a  few  years  ago  he  procured  and  read 
with  great  care  and  zest  Hardee's  Tactics.  Doubtless  his  taste  for  the  exact 
sciences  was  developed  and  fixed  at  this  period.  I  remember  to  have  heard 
him  tell  of  the  wonder  and  delight  which  he  felt  when  the  significance  of 
the  diagrams  in  a  work  on  geometry  was  first  explained  to  him.  On  his 
first  introduction  to  Euclid  he  read  it  with  the  eagerness  and  rapidity  with 
which  most  young  people  peruse  a  romance. 

In  1818  the  brothers,  Samuel  and  James,  after  making  a  tour  in  France, 
sailed  for  the  United  States.  James  at  once  commenced  his  career  as  a 
teacher  at  Harlaem.    His  brother  entered  successfully  into  business. 

There  were  at  that  time  in  New  York  and  the  neighborhood  a  number  of 
American  and  British  mathematicians  who  had  organized  a  mathematical 
club;  of  this  club  Mr.  James  Phillips  became  a  member.  Among  his  as- 
sociates were  such  men  as  Strong,  Ryan  and  McNulty,  all  eminent  in  their 
day.  In  the  mathematical  journals  published  at  that  time  problems  were 
regularly  proposed  for  solution,  and  the  attempt  to  solve  them  was  a  favorite 
mode  with  the  aspirants  for  reputation  in  these  studies  of  exhibiting  their 
ingenuity  and  power.    Such  attempts  form  the  beginning  of  the  career  of 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  359 


some  of  our  most  distinguished  scientific  men.  It  was  a  kind  of  exercise 
of  which  Mr.  Phillips  was  always  fond,  and  for  several  years  he  was  a 
regular  contributor  to  at  least  two  of  these  journals— the  Mathematical 
Repository  edited  by  Adrian  and  afterward  by  Ryan,  and  Nash's  Diary, 

Having  married  in  1821,  he  seemed  happily  settled  for  life.  His  school 
was  flourishing,  he  had  numerous  warm  and  influential  friends  and  enjoyed 
all  the  advantages  derived  from  scientific  and  literary  associations.  That  he 
suddenly  abandoned  this  so  desirable  position  and  removed  from  New  York 
to  the  wilds  of  North  Carolina  was  owing  in  a  great  measure  to  the  influence 
of  Dr.  Robert  Adrain,  at  that  time  a  professor  in  the  college  of  New  Bruns- 
wick, New  Jersey.  It  was  he  who  first  directed  Mr.  Phillips'  attention  to 
the  vacant  chair  in  the  University  of  North  Carolina  and  urged  him  to 
apply  for  it,  and  it  was  his  emphatic  testimonial  in  Mr.  Phillips'  behalf 
that  decided  the  choice  of  the  trustees.  The  strongest  argument  pressed  on 
Mr.  Phillips  was  that  whose  force  every  scholar  would  feel — the  advantage 
afforded  by  such  a  position  for  concentrating  his  powers  upon  a  single  study, 
instead  of  being  compelled,  as  in  a  school,  to  dissipate  them  among  a  variety. 
On  receiving  the  appointment  to  Chapel  Hill,  he  sold  his  property  at  once 
and  removed  to  North  Carolina,  in  May,  1826,  entering  upon  the  duties  of 
his  professorship  in  the  following  July. 

The  condition  of  the  university  was  then  far  from  prosperous.  In  re- 
ferring to  those  early  days,  Dr.  Phillips  frequently  spoke  of  the  discourage- 
ments and  embarrassments  he  met  with.  He  found  in  the  then  president, 
Dr.  Joseph  Caldwell,  a  sympathizing  and  judicious  friend.  He  was  a  more 
inexorable  mathematician  if  possible  than  himself;  one  in  whom  the  sciem 
tine  and  practical  were  happily  blended,  and  of  liberal,  far-seeing  views  ;  and 
to  these  qualities  were  joined  great  dignity  of  character,  rigor  as  a  disci- 
plinarian and  inflexible  integrity.  Professor  Phillips  won  the  confidence 
and  friendship  of  this  great  and  good  man  and  repaid  it  by  a  life-long  affec- 
tion and  veneration.  In  the  members  of  the  Faculty  which  then  adorned 
the  university,  Professors  Hooper,  Andrews,  Mitchell  and  Hentz,  he  had 
colleagues  whose  superiors  in  their  respective  departments  could  be  found  in 
few  colleges  in  our  country. 

It  is  to  be  deplored  that  we  can  learn  so  little  of  the  early  portion  of  Dr. 
"  Phillips'  life  at  Chapel  Hill.  To  make  an  impartial  estimate  of  his  character 
and  influence  as  an  instructor  we  should  see  him,  not  merely  as  he  was  at 
the  close  of  his  life,  but  also  as  he  was  when,  in  the  vigor  of  his  days  and  full 
of  enthusiasm,  he  entered  upon  the  duties  of  his  department.  A  more  con- 
genial one  could  not  have  been  assigned  him,  and  he  devoted  himself  to  it  with 
all  his  energies.  The  amount  of  work  he  went  through  with  is  amazing. 
He  projected  a  complete  course  of  mathematical  works,  and  published  in 
1828  a  work  on  Conic  Sections,  which  was  intended  to  be  an  introduction  to 
natural  philosophy.  It  was  adopted  as  a  text  book  in  Columbia  College, 
N.  Y. ,  but  being  purely  geometrical  in  its  method  and  appearing  just  as 
algebraic  geometry  was  introduced  was  of  course  soon  superseded.  He  pre- 
pared also  treatises  on  Algebra,  Geometry,  Trigonometry,  Differential  and  In- 
tegral Calculus  and  Natural  Philosophy,  besides  making  for  his  own  use 
translations  of  many  of  the  French  mathematicians.  These  works  he  never 
made  any  attempt  to  publish.  We  have  also  his  records  of  various  as- 
tromical  observations  and  calculations,  part  of  them  made  at  the  observa- 
tory erected  here  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  Caldwell — the  first  observatory, 
I  believe,  ever  erected  in  the  United  States.  He  also  joined  the  other  mem- 
bers of  the  faculty  in  contributing  his  quota  to  the  Harbinger,  a  news- 
paper published  at  Chapel  Hill,  in  1832,  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  Cald- 


380     THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


well.  In  addition  to  these  absorbing  duties  he  found  time  to  carry  on  tho 
education  of  his  three  children  with  great  punctuality.  In  this,  however, 
he  was  greatly  assisted  by  his  wife,  for  there  were  in  those  days  no  schools 
in  Chapel  Hill,  and  but  few  in  North  Carolina. 

Up  to  the  time  of  his  coming  to  North  Carolina,  and  for  some  years  after, 
he  seems  to  have  devoted  himself  exclusively  to  scientific  studies.  A  great 
and  permanent  change  was  now  to  take  place  in  his  life.  The  reports  of 
the  great  religious  awakening  which  followed  the  labors  of  Dr.  Nettleton  in 
Virginia  excited  the  interest  of  Professor  Phillips,  and  in  company  with 
Dr.  Hooper,  during  a  summer  vacation,  he  made  an  excursion  into  Virginia 
to  visit  him.  Very  unexpectedly  to  both  gentlemen,  Dr.  Nettleton  returned 
this  visit,  and  this  was  the  commencement  of  a  deep  and  general  religious  in- 
terest in  this  place  and  neighborhood.  Although  Professor  Phillips  had  been 
for  some  years  a  consistent  member  of  the  Church,  yet  now  he  began  to  distrust 
his  previous  religious  experience,  and  regarded  the  great  change  which  now 
took  place  in  his  views  and  feelings  as  the  true  beginning  of  his  Christian 
life.  It  was  the  great  epoch  of  his  life.  He  felt  and  obeyed  the  summons 
to  other  and  higher  duties,  and  henceforth  he  ceased  to  be  the  mere  teacher 
of  science.  He  added  to  his  other  duties  the  diligent  study  of  theology 
and  unwearied  activity  in  all  Christian  duties.  His  zeal  in  establishing  and 
maintaining  prayer-meetings  and  religious  conferences  soon  became  con- 
spicuous among  his  colleagues,  and  among  the  students  he  had  zealous  co- 
laborers,  but  he  surpassed  all.  Dr.  Caldwell  declared  at  Presbytery  that  in 
the  revival  at  Chapel  Hill.  "Professor  Phillips  had  eclipsed  all  the  preach- 
ers," and  his  old  friend,  Dr.  Hooper,  states  that  his  uncommon  fervor  and 
zeal  so  far  distanced  all  others  as  to  impair  the  effects  of  their  ministry ;  his 
animation  and  warmth  made  others  ashamed  of  their  coldness.  His  public 
exhortations  and  services  naturally  attracted  the  notice  of  Presbytery,  as 
being  not  in  strict  conformity  to  "law  and  order,"  and  at  a  meeting  of 
Presbytery  at  New  Hope,  seven  miles  from  Chapel  Hill,  in  September,  1833, 
at  which  Professor  Phillips  happened  to  be  present  with  no  view  of  seeking 
admission  to  the  ministerial  office,  he  was  urged  by  the  leading  members  to 
submit  at  once  to  an  examination  for  licensure.  When  he  resisted  so  sum- 
mary a  proceeding,  Dr.  MePheeters  remarked  jocularly,  "Well,  sir,  Presby- 
tery will  either  have  to  license  you  or  to  discipline  you."  Professor  Phillips  ■ 
yielded,  and  after  some  further  delay,  occasioned  by  the  difficulty  of  finding 
a  presbyter  willing  to  undertake  to  examine  him,  he  was  duly  licensed.  In 
April,  1835,  at  a  meeting  of  Presbytery  in  Hillsboro',  he  was  solemnly  or- 
dained to  the  full  work  of  the  ministry.  He  never  was  ordained  as  pastor, 
but  he  preached  as  a  supply  for  some  time  at  Pittsboro',  and  afterward,  for 
the  greater  part  of  his  ministerial  life,  at  New  Hope  church.  To  this 
church  he  was  sincerely  attached,  and  for  nearly  thirty  years  he  preached 
there  with  great  regularity,  holding  afternoon  services  in  neighboring  school- 
houses  and  private  dwellings,  seeking  as  his  only  recompense  that  he  might 
see  some  good  as  the  result  of  his  toil.  His  labors  here  only  ceased  when 
advancing  years  forbade  the  exertion  and  exposure,  but  not  before  he. had 
the  gratification  of  seeing  his  eldest  son  in  the  same  place,  endeared  to  him 
by  so  many  recollections,  set  apart  to  the  same  sacred  and  important  work. 
For  the  last  few  years  of  his  life  he  acted  as  supply  of  the  church  in 
Chapel  Hill — a  church  which  he  was  principally  instrumental  in  erecting — 
and  was  in  full  discharge  of  his  duties  as  such  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

The  forty-one  years  of  Dr.  Phillips'  life  at  Chapel  Hill  present  but  few 
materials  for  the  biographer,  a  teacher's  life  being  proverbially  barren  of 
incident.    They  were  years  of  quiet,  unremitting  study  and  of  single-minded 


THE   PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  361 


devotion  to  the  duties  of  his  calling.  He  gradually  concentrated  his  efforts 
upon  his  work  in  the  class-room  and  in  the  pulpit.  ^  His  contributions  to 
mathematical  journals  were  at  length  suspended — his  intercourse  with  scien- 
tific men  abroad  ceased.  He  made  but  few  visits  to  the  North  ;  the  last  was  in 
1851,  when  he  was  appointed  one  of  the  visitors  to  West  Point.  His  vaca- 
tions were  spent  in  attending  ecclesiastical  meetings  or  in  visits  to  a  few  old 
friends.  He  hardly  felt  it  a  vacation  when  precluded  from  smoking  a  pipe 
with  such  friends  as  Dr.  Alex.  Wilson,  or  Dr.  Harding,  or  Mr.  Grotter. 

In  the  winter  of  1863  and  '64  he  had  a  severe  attack  of  pneumonia  ;  it  was 
the  first  serious  illness  of  his  life,  and  both  he  and  his  friends  believed  that 
it  would  prove  fatal.  But  he  recovered,  and  was  able  to  resume  his  college 
duties.  There  was  a  change  in  him,  however,  from  that  period.  He  never 
regained  his  former  elasticity  and  vivacity.  He  himself  was  well  aware  of 
it,  and  frequently  intimated  to  those  nearest  to  him  his  conviction  that  his 
end  was  near.  Owing  to  the  sickness  of  his  son  and  coadjutor  in  the 
mathematical  department  in  the  early  part  of  the  present  session,  the 
onerous  burden  of  that  entire  department  was  thrown  upon  him.  But  no 
persuasions  could  induce  him  to  demit  any  part  of  his  work. 

Dr.  Phillips'  most  characteristic  traits  as  a  student  were  thoroughness, 
accuracy  and  system.  With  him,  what  was  worth  doing  at  all  was  worth 
doing  well ;  what  he  began  he  would  finish.  This  tendency  to  complete  was 
more  marked  in  him  than  in  any  scholar  I  have  ever  known.  In  his  library 
will  be  found  many  volumes,  some  of  them  of  a  size  to  appal  even  those 
who  cannot  justly  be  designated  as  "  languid  readers,"  in  which  he  has  written, 
"  Hoc  volumen  perlegV  This  perlegi  is  very  characteristic.  It  was  very 
seldom  that  he  had  occasion  to  reperuse  a  book.  In  his  class-room  he  was 
a  strict  disciplinarian  and  severe  in  his  requisitions,  though  always  cheerful 
and  pleasant  in  his  address  and  easy  of  access  to  his  pupils.  But  he  wanted 
them  to  study.  He  believed  in  hard  work,  and  that  no  great  results  were  ever 
obtained  in  any  department  of  human  labor  without  it.  Distinguished 
himself  for  self-reliance  and  system,  he  knew  the  value  of  such  habits,  and 
as  he  had  never  spared  himself,  he  would  not  spare  others.  He  strove  to 
inure  his  pupils  to  habits  of  strenuous  thought,  independence  of  aid  from 
others  and  manly  persistence  in  endeavors  to  overcome  difficulties.  As  a 
man  of  science  he  belonged  to  that  class  of  naturalists  who  are  conducted 
to  the  study  of  physical  science  mainly  by  a  fondness  for  pure  mathematics, 
and  to  whom  the  great  charm  of  the  former  is  that  they  contain  the  applica- 
tion of  the  principles  of  the  latter.  His  mind  craved  certainty  and  the 
foundation  of  settled  principles,  and  his  great  aim  in  teaching  seemed  to  be 
to  secure  certainty  to  his  pupils.  He  always  required  them  to  give  every 
step  of  the  process ;  he  allowed  no  omissions  of  a  premiss,  no  saltus  in  the 
reasoning.  The  immature  minds  with  whom  he  had  to  deal  could  not  un- 
derstand such  rigorous  exactness,  and  were  often  worried  at  the  minuteness 
of  his  requisitions,  and  perplexed  when  at  stating  some  plain  proposition 
which,  however,  their  previous  statement  did  not  warrant,  they  were  met  by 
the  sharp  " I don 't  see  that.'"  It  may  be  doubted  whether  such  discipline 
was  fitted  for  any  but  superior  minds.  As  able  mathematicians  as  any  in 
the  South  were  trained  under  his  teaching,  and  numerous  testimonials  from 
competent  authorities  paid  high  tribute  to  the  efficacy  of  his  method.  But 
it  was  a  severe  training,  which  none  but  the  strong  could  endure.  Few  ever 
reached  the  standard  which  could  satisfy  him,  and  he  often  spoke  despond- 
ently of  what  he  deemed  the  inadequate  results  of  so  laborious  a  life. 
What  faithful  teacher  ever  felt  otherwise  on  a  review  of  his  work?  They 
of  all  men  seem  called  to  walk  by  faith  rather  than  by  sight,  sowing  the  seed 
46 


362    THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


for  others  to  reap  the  harvest  perchance  long  after  they  have  rested  from 
their  labors. 

Dr.  Phillips'  theological  sympathies  are  indicated  by  saying  that  he  read 
most  frequently  the  works  of  such  men  as  Owen,  Charnock,  Gurnall,  Per- 
kins, Ambrose  and  others  of  the  same  school.  These  he  studied  with  care, 
and  their  influence  was  plainly  seen  in  his  modes  of  thinking  and  style  of 
sermonizing.  He  could  not  be  brought  to  take  much  interest  in  the  discus- 
sions and  controversies  which  now  agitate  the  Christian  world.  They  seemed 
to  him  too  vague,  too  subtle,  too  remote  from  practical  life.  The  great  fea- 
ture of  his  character  was  his  unaffected  piety.  He  did  not  belong  to  that 
class  of  naturalists  who  see  in  nature  only  the  operations  of  a  blind  necessity, 
and  own  no  God  but  mathematical  laws.  He  believed  with  his  great  mas- 
ters, Kepler,  and  Newton,  and  Barrow,  and  Boyle,  that  it  is  the  province  of 
natural  philosophy  to  elevate  us  to  God,  and  he  carried  a  profoundly  rever- 
ent spirit  into  his  most  abstract  studies.  Had  one  demanded  of  him  his 
creed,  he  would  in  all  probability  have  answered:  "It  is  a  brief  one.  I 
know  that  I  am  a  sinner.  I  know  that  Jesus  Christ  died  for  sinners,  and  I 
believe  that  he  died  for  me."  With  this  humility  and  faith  was  joined  a 
peculiarly  tender  and  ardent  personal  attachment  to  the  Lord  Jesus.  The 
tears  would  often  spring  to  his  eyes  at  the  mere  mention  of  his  name  and 
his  work. 

As  a  preacher,  he  was  a  zealous,  ardent  and  unusually  animated  and  melt- 
ing. He  often  mingled  his  tears  with  his  impassioned  exhortations,  and 
seemed  to  pour  out  his  soul  in  his  earnest  desire  to  save  souls.  His  sermons 
at  first  were  mostly  fervid  exhortations  ;  later,  his  mind  becoming  tinged  with 
the  old  Nonconformist  divinity  in  which  he  delighted,  they  were  elaborate 
theological  discussions,  rich  in  matter,  clear  in  statement,  symmetrical  in 
form,  but  excessive  in  divisions  and  subdivisions,  abounding  in  quaint  ex- 
pressions and  familiar  illustrations,  and  always  delivered  with  unaffected 
earnestness  and  simplicity.  He  probably  preached  in  few  portions  of  our 
State  without  making  lasting  impressions  on  some  minds;  there  will  be 
found  many  among  his  old  hearers  who  preferred  him  to  any  they  ever  heard. 
Though  perhaps  no  visible  impression  could  be  observed  at  the  time,  yet  it 
often  occurred  that  individuals  who  came  forward  long  afterward  to  make 
profession  of  their  faith  would  refer  to  some  discourse  of  Dr.  Phillips  as 
that  which  first  awakened  them  to  though tfulness  and  the  beginning  of  a 
new  life.  The  las.t  few  years  of  his  life  his  sermons  resembled  more  his 
earlier  ones.  They  were  brief,  fervid  appeals,  and  seemed  addressed  prin- 
cipally to  the  young.  His  last  discourse  was  on  the  text  (Amos  v.  6), 
"Seek  the  Lord  and  ye  shall  live." 

And  when  carried  back  a  corpse  to  his  study,  which  he  had  left  but  half 
an  hour  before,  there  was  lying  open  on  his  table  the  manuscript  of  a  ser- 
mon evidently  intended  for  the  ensuing  Sabbath,  on  the  words,  "Enter  ye 
in  at  the  strait  gate. ' ' 

I  have  devoted  so  large  a  portion  of  my  time  to  the  consideration  of  Dr. 
Phillips'  merits  as  a  professor  and  divine  that  I  can  attempt  but  an  imper- 
fect delineation  of  him  as  a  man. 

The  most  careless  observer  could  not  fail  to  he  struck,  upon  even  a  short 
acquaintance,  with  his  uncompromising  conscientiousness.  He  was  in  all 
things  a  loyal  "bondman  of  duty."  Those  who  knew  him  will  acknow- 
ledge that  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  he  was  never  found  to  neglect  a 
duty,  however  trivial  or  lowly.  He  was  always  found  at  his  post,  and 
always  ready  with  his  appointed  work.  Nothing  placed  such  an  impassable 
grief  between  him  and  another  as  the  suspicion  of  a  want  of  integrity.  It 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  863 


was  perhaps  well  for  some  who  claimed  his  friendship  that  he  was  of  a 
most  unsuspicious  turn,  and  not  easily  persuaded  to  think  evil  of  any  man. 
He  habitually  brought  all  actions  to  the  broad  principles  of  right,  nor  would 
he  ever  permit  the  dangerous  experiment  of  refining  on  questions  of 
morals.  His  was  too  healthy  and  honest  a  nature  to  tolerate  this  species  of 
casuistry.  He  never  suffered  himself  to  be  swayed  by  the  opinion  of  others 
or  by  motives  of  interest.  This  devotion  to  straightforward  truth  and  single- 
mindedness  gave  his  life  great  unity  and  simplicity ;  it  delivered  him  from 
all  distractions  and  inconsistencies,  and  to  its  influence  are  we  to  trace  the 
unvarying  cheerfulness  and  gayety  and  vigor  of  mind  which  so  adorned  his 
old  age,  and  which  he  enjoyed  to  the  hour  of  his  death.  Notwithstanding 
his  nearly  fifty  years'  residence  in  America,  he  remained  to  the  last  in  many 
of  his  characteristics  emphatically  an  Englishman.  He  was  somewhat  blunt 
in  his  address — a  man  of  few  words,  brave  and  quiet,  yet  a  most  hearty  and 
genial  companion.  He  was  a  warm  and  steadfast  friend,  for  he  had  a  large 
heart,  generously  alive  to  the  joys  and  sorrows  and  wants  of  others,  but  he 
shrank  from  all  demonstration  of  feeling.  _  He  was  pre-eminently  no  meddler 
in  other  men's  matters,  and  so  nice  was  his  sense  of  honor  and  delicacy  that 
he  would  not  even  remove  the  wrapper  from  a  newspaper  belonging  to 
another.  He  rarely  volunteered  his  advice  or  opinion,  even  when  he  knew 
it  was  earnestly  desired,  nor  would  he  permit  the  interference  of  others  in 
his  own  affairs.  In  his  personal  habits  he  was  simple  and  unassuming  to  the 
last  degree.  I  know  of  no  man  who  deserved  so  much  and  who  exacted  so 
little.  His  own  wants  were  the  last  he  thought  of  or  provided  for.  To 
others  his  hand  was  always  open.  In  his  contributions  to  charitable  pur- 
poses or  to  the  various  calls  of  the  Church,  as  he  chose  in  life  never  to  let 
his  left  hand  know  what  his  right  hand  gave,  it  is  fit  now  to  say  no  more 
than  that  his  liberality  often  far  exceeded  his  means. 

In  his  early  years  there  were  some  astringencies  and  asperities  of  manner 
and  expression,  which  in  old  age  mellowed,  as  we  often  see  in  ripening  fruit 
after  the  frost  has  touched  it ;  and  he  was  never  happier  than  when  sur- 
rounded by  children  and  sharing  their  sports.  In  person  he  was  not  above 
the  middle  height,  but  firmly  built  and  active ;  and  having  enjoyed  an  un- 
broken constitution  and  a  clear  conscience  to  the  last  of  his  life,  his  elastic 
step,  his  clear  hazel  eye  and  hearty  laugh,  his  snow-white  hair  and  ruddy 
cheek  formed  an  attractive  and  kindly  picture  of  a  blessed  and  green  old 
age. 

The  qualities  I  have  described  are  those  which  all  who  came  in  contact 
with  Dr.  Phillips  could  observe ;  but  there  were  many  of  the  finer  traits  of 
his  character  which  could  be  known  only  to  his  intimate  friends.  Those  who 
regard  as  the  truest  type  of  Christian  character  not  a  morbid  self-scrutiniz- 
ing mood,  not  mere  sentimental  or  extravagant  enthusiasm,  but  that  cheer- 
ful, practical,  manly  piety  exhibited  in  such  characters  as  Chalmers  and 
Arnold,  would  have  recognized  in  Dr.  Phillips  a  Christian  of  the  highest 
style.  Christian  principle  pervaded  his  whole  life,  and  manifested  its  pres- 
ence and  power  in  cheerful  patience,  in  unwearied,  joyful  obedience,  in  steady 
progress  in  knowledge  and  virtue — 

"  From  well  to  better,  daily  self-surpassed." 

In  reference  to  his  Christian  character,  one  of  his  earliest  and  most  valued 
friends  and  colleagues,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hooper,  writes : 

"He  was  a  character  that  under  the  habitual  moulding  of  Christian  prin- 
ciples and  of  fervent  Christian  feelings  would  continually  improve.  Nat- 
urally ardent,  bluff,  impulsive,  I  could  easily  believe  that  this  temper  cost 


364     THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


him  continual  conflict  and  humiliation  in  his  private  and  in  his  professional 
life ;  but  as  these  very  conflicts,  defeats  and  victories  lead  to  deeper  know- 
ledge of  internal  weakness,  and  to  richer  experience  of  the  necessity  and  of 
the  fullness  of  divine  grace,  I  doubt  not  all  who  had  intercourse  with  him 
were  gainers  by  his  increased  self-discipline." 

Of  the  struggles  alluded  to  in  this  extract  only  the  inmates  of  his  own 
family  could  know,  They  above  all  others  could  notice  the  continual  ripen- 
ing of  his  character,  and  how  his  path  brightened  and  brightened  unto  the 
perfect  day.  There  was  toward  the  last  a  strange  unworldliness  about  him, 
as  of  one  who  looked  away  from  the  seen  to  the  unseen,  a  freedom  from 
care  and  anxiety,  a  tranquil  superiority  to  ordinary  annoyances,  a  patient 
and  touching  endurance  of  wrong,  that  was  very  marked.  He  was  in  truth 
dying  daily.  I,  who  saw  him  after  an  interval  of  a  year's  absence,  was 
greatly  impressed  by  the  change.  He  became  more  and  more  tender  and 
gentle  and  childlike.  In  his  reading  he  less  frequently  recurred  to  the  mas- 
sive treaties  which  had  been  his  delight  in  former  days,  and  gave  himself 
more  to  the  perusal  of  devotional  works.  The  Bible  became  more  and  more 
the  object  of  continuous  study ;  morning,  noon  and  night  he  would  be  found 
with  it  on  his  knee.  His  gift  in  prayer,  both  public  and  private,  had  always 
been  remarkable.  In  the  numerous  notices  of  him  which  appeared  at  the 
time  of  his  death  not  one  failed  to  remark  on  this  excellence  as  unrivaled. 
Of  late  they  became  briefer  and  more  than  usually  fervid.  He  dwelt  much 
on  the  near  approach  of  death,  and  in  private  seems  to  have  designated  in- 
dividuals by  name,  as  if  feeling  that  his  time  for  intercession  was  short.  It 
was  in  these  prayers  that  a  more  complete  revelation  of  his  mind  was  given 
us.  Who  that  ever  heard  him  has  not  felt  their  power.  They  were  the 
breathings  of  a  humble  and  fervent  soul,  free  from  all  reliance  on  himself 
and  full  of  filial  confidence  in  God — prayers  that  told  of  inward  struggles 
and  victories,  of  lofty  aspirations,  and  of  a  peace  that  passeth  understand- 
ing. The  increasing  warmth  of  his  religious  feelings  stimulated  into  greater 
activity  his  imagination  and  sensibility.  He  wrote  many  little  poems  which 
deserve  an  honorable  place  in  our  collection  of  hymns.  One  of  his  latest 
published  poetical  pieces  was  a  translation  of  Xavier's  well-known  Latin  ode, 
"  0  Deus,  ego  amo  ie."  As  it  is  brief  I  give  it,  and  those  familiar  with  the 
original  will  acknowledge  the  accuracy  and  felicity  of  the  rendering.  I  give 
it,  however,  only  as  an  expression  of  his  own  peculiarly  tender  affection  for 
the  person  of  his  Saviour : 

0  God!   my  heart  is  set  on  thee: 
Not  that  thou  may'st  my  Saviour  be, 
Nor  yet  because  thou  wilt  compel 
Thy  foes  in  endless  fire  to  dwell. 
Thou,  thou,  my  Jesus,  had'st  me  in 
Thine  arms  when  on  the  cross  for  sin ; 
The  nails,  the  lance,  the  shame,  the  tear, 
The  sweat,  the  agony  severe, 
And  even  death  itself,  thou,  Lord, 
Did'st  bear  for  me,  a  wretch  abhorred. 
Why,  Jesus,  then,  may  not  my  heart 
Be  thine,  since  thou  most  lovely  art? 
Not  that  thou  may'st  me  bring  to  heaven, 
Or  place  me  'mongst  the  unforgiven  ; 
Not  that  I  hope  for  any  fee, 
But  just  as  thou  hast  loved  me, 
So  do  I  love,  and  will  love  thee : 
Because  thou  art  my  King  alone, 
And  I  no  other  God  will  own. 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  365 


Death  found  our  old  friend  read}7.  He  died  as  he  would  have  wished  to 
die.  It  had  been  his  ordinary  petition  at  family  prayer  that  God  would 
u  make  him  useful  as  long  as  he  lived  and  let  him  die  in  his  service."  We 
can  read  in  the  circumstances  of  his  death  the  remarkably  answer  to  this 
petition.  He  was  allowed  the  full  possession  of  all  his  vigorous  mental 
powers,  and  strength  for  the  discharge  of  all  his  duties,  to  the  last  moment 
of  his  life.  He  had  come  from  his  study-table,  from  the  preparation  of  a 
discourse  for  the  coming  Sunday,  and  had  taken  his  place  in  this  chapel, 
once  more  to  pray  with  us  and  for  us,  and  then  to  go  forth  to  his  task, 
when  the  summons  came  to  him,  and  by  a  tranquil,  painless,  almost  instan- 
taneous death  at  his  post  in  the  presence  of  his  classes,  he  passed  from  the 
cares  and  toils  of  earthly  labor  to  his  reward.  Such  a  death  was  the  fitting 
close  of  this  long  life  of  unwearied  labor  for  the  good  of  his  fellow-men^ of 
continuous  self-denying  adherence  to  an  early-chosen,  noble  plan  of  life, 
and  of  inflexible  devotion  to  truth  and  duty. 

POPE,  FIELDING— Was  born  in  Virginia  in  1800.  He  was  educated  in 
Marysville  College,  Tenn.,  and  studied  divinity  at  the  Southern  and  Western 
Theological  Seminary,  at  Marysville,  Tenn.  He  was  licensed  by  Union 
Presbytery  in  1826,  and  soon  after  was  ordained  by  the  same  Presbytery, 
and  began  his  labors  as  stated  supply  for  Mars  Hill,  Columbiana  and  Shiloh 
churches,  near  Athens,  Tenn.  This  relation  existed  until  1833,  when  he  ac- 
cepted a  profesorship  in  Marysville  College,  Tenn,  and  in  1836  he  also 
preached  for  Eusebia  church,  in  Blount  county,  Tenn.  In  1844  he  resigned 
his  professorship  and  devoted  all  his  time  to  the  ministry.  In  1852  he  was 
connected  as  president  with  the  Masonic  Female  Institute  of  Marysville,  and 
in  1857  he  took  charge  of  New  Providence  church,  in  Marysville :  in  all 
these  labors  he  was  earnest  and  faithful.  About  the  close  of  the  civil  war 
he  was  compelled  to  leave  his  home  on  account  of  the  lawlessness  of  the 
times,  and  he  removed  to  the  residence  of  his  granddaughter,  near  Lump- 
kin, Ga.,  where  he  died,  March  23,  1867,  of  heart  disease. 

He  was  married  three  times :  first,  to  Miss  Craig,  of  Kentucky  ;  second, 
to  Miss  Meigs,  of  Nashville,  Tenn.  ;  third,  to  Miss  Hannum,  of  Marysville, 
Tenn.,  who,  with  four  children,  survives  him. 

Rev.  C.  C.  Newman,  of  Estaboga,  Ala. ,  writes : 

He  was  a  man  of  great  power  and  popularity  in  the  pulpit ;  in  later  years 
he  seemed  to  have  lost  some  of  his  power,  but  none  of  his  zeal.  Take  him 
altogether,  he  was  a  man  in  ability  above  the  ordinary  grade — a  good  man 
and  full  of  good  works. 

REID,  JOHN  WILSON— The  son  of  Joseph  and  Margaret  (Farr)  Reid, 
was  born  in  Cabarras  county,  North  Carolina,  in  1807.  He  was  early  called 
of  God,  and  felt  persuaded  that  he  must  be  a  minister.  His  means  were 
humble  and  it  was  his  lot  to  battle  with  poverty ;  this  he  did  with  unwavering 
purpose,  and  in  his  acquisition  of  learning  he  gave  evidence  of  that  in- 
domitable energy  which  was  characteristic  of  him  through  life.  He  pur- 
sued his  literary  and  scientific  studies  chiefly  under  Dr.  John  Robinson  of 
North  Carolina.  In  1831  he  removed  to  Columbia  county,  Ga.,  and  opened 
a  classical  school,  during  which  time  he  studied  theology  under  the  direction 
of  S.  K.  Talmage,  D.D.,*  at  that  time  pastor  of  the  church  in  Augusta,  Ga. 
He  was  licensed  by  Hopewell  Presbytery  in  September,  1833,  at  Decatur? 


*  A  memoir  of  De.  Talmage  is  published  in  TJie  Presbyterian  Historical  Almanac  for  1866,  p.  363. 


866     THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


Ga.,  and  soon  after  ordained  by  the  same  Presbytery.  In  addition  to  his 
teaching  he  was  stated  supply  of  Bethel  church.  He  was  subsequently  con- 
nected with  Olivet,  South  Liberty,  Lincolnton,  Double  Branches,  Salem, 
Woodstock,  Bethany  and  Lexington  churches,  and  also  as  a  general  domestic 
missionary  agent.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  he  was  an  active  and  earnest 
Christian,  and  when  it  is  known  that  he  was  also  a  teacher  his  usefulness 
must  be  acknowledged.  He  died  at  his  residence  in  Woodstock,  Ogle- 
thorpe county,  Ga.,  July  11,  1867,  of  dysentery. 

He  married  Miss  Sophia  A.  Morgan,  who,  with  a  daughter  and  son,  sur- 
vives him. 

Rev.  B.  A.  Houston,  of  Mayfield,  Geo.,  writes:  For  about  thirty  years, 
he  laboriously  followed  the  occupation  of  teaching  in  connection  with  the  ex- 
ercise of  his  ministry.  _  Having  completed  his  preparations  in  North  Caro- 
lina, he  came  to  Georgia  at  a  mature  age  to  begin  life  in  a  new  sphere ;  and 
having  spent  several  years — ten  or  twelve — in  the  instruction  of  youth  in 
the  counties  of  Columbia  and  Lincoln,  with  decided  acceptance  and  success, 
he  removed  to  Woodstock,  Oglethorpe  co. ,  where  he  resided  until  his  death. 
This  village,  delightfully  embowered  in  a  fine  grove  of  oaks,  in  a  sequestered 
spot,  free  from  all  the  common  sources  of  temptation  to  the  young,  was 
built  up  by  the  subject  of  this  sketch  and  two  or  three  other  gentlemen  of 
wealth  and  intelligence,  for  the  sake  of  social,  educational  and  religious 
privileges.  It  has  been  devoted  to  these  high  purposes,  and  having  become 
classic  ground  to  hundreds,  will  be  long  remembered  for  its  sacred  associa- 
tions and  extensive  salutary  influence.  For  a  few  years,  Mr.  Beid  taught 
the  numerous  scholars  placed  under  his  care  in  all  the  branches  and  to  the 
extent  ordinary  in  a  high-school.  But  the  capacity,  skill  and  success  of  the 
teacher  in  training  young  men,  rapidly  increased  his  reputation;  and  many 
others  from  every  direction  and  from  distant  points,  even  beyond  the  bounds 
of  the  State,  came  hither  to  enjoy  the  rare  intellectual  and  moral  advantages 
of  the  school.  It  was  thought,  therefore,  that  a  more  regular  organization 
would  secure  greater  efficiency,  and  meet  the  wants  of  that  numerous  circle 
who  desired  to  prepare  for  the  various. occupations  of  active  life,  and  yet 
from  different  causes  were  unable  to  meet  the  requirements  of  a  college. 
The  studies  of  quite  a  full  literary,  classical  and  scientific  course  were  there- 
fore arranged  into  four  divisions,  adapted  to  youth  in  the  different  grades  of 
advancement,  and  adequate  to  ensure  thorough  and  efficient  scholarship. 
The  school  henceforth  took  the  name  of  "  Philomathean  Collegiate  Insti- 
tute." He  was  most  efficiently  assisted  during  two  or  three  years — first  by 
his  eldest  son,  and  afterward  by  his  youngest;  the  former,  a  graduate  of 
Princeton ;  the  latter,  of  Oglethorpe  University.  This  organization  accom- 
plished all  that  its  friends  expected.  The  change  was  made  at  the  sugges- 
tion and  by  the  aid  of  the  Honorable  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  a  finished 
scholar  himself,  and  long  a  patron  of  this  school.  For  among  the  numerous 
patriotic  and  benevolent  efforts  of  this  gentleman  in  behalf  of  his  country- 
men, none  shine  brighter  than  his  education  of  worthy  young  men  without 
adequate  means  to  accomplish  it  themselves.  He  frequently  had  several  at 
the  same  time  under  Mr.  Beid's  instruction,  and  their  diligence  and  attain- 
ments generally  vindicate  the  wisdom  of  their  selection  as  well  as  of  the 
choice  of  their  teacher.  It  is  proper  to  mention  in  this  connection  that  Mr. 
Beid  also  was  in  the  habit  of  boarding  and  teaching  young  men  of  promise, 
but  without  means,  on  condition  of  payment  if  ever  they  became  able.  It 
is  supposed  that  perhaps  a  hundred  were  thus  enabled  to  obtain  an  educa- 
tion.   And  it  is  worthy  of  record  that  the  universality  with  which  these  en- 


